


like an oh-three star

by frozensight



Series: dreamin' about what we could be [2]
Category: Nova (Comics), The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb), Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 18:05:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4110109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozensight/pseuds/frozensight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam's not there to find anyone. He's there because his friends told him he needed to get out more, and his mom agreed.</p><p>Now, he's not a mama's boy, but—to paraphrase a great man of Gondor—one does not simply disagree with Mrs. Alexander.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like an oh-three star

**Author's Note:**

> Haha wow "hazel or green" was only published _in Februrary_ and it is now _June_ , but hey I finally finished Sam's pov version!!!
> 
> You don't need to read the first part to get this one, but it'll certainly make more sense (especially the end). I have ideas for other ficlets in this universe, but who the hell knows when I'll get around to them. I have around 10 fics I'm working on right now, one of which is my giant Pacific Rim/marvel au (spideynova focus, naturally), and I'm constantly having to stop myself from starting _new_ fics.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

Sam Alexander, surprising even to himself, loves Christmas.

There's something about the atmosphere, the general aura of good-feelings, that appeals to Sam. It's even stronger in New York City than it ever was in tiny Carefree, Arizona, where snow is a pipe dream even when it falls into the negatives at night. However, Sam is proud to say that his family has always had a pretty festive looking cactus in their front yard—mostly because he and his dad decorated it once, and haven't had the guts to try and remove any of it.

It helps that Christmas is usually the one holiday that Sam's dad is certain to be sober for—that it's the one holiday of the year that Sam knows he won't be frustrated, embarrassed, and full of pity at the sight of his father.

He tries not to think about his father's bad days since things have been better for the entire family in recent years. Sam's doing well at college, his sister, Kaelynn, has just started high school, his mom was promoted to shift manager, and his dad finally landed a steady job as a mechanic. The last time he talked to his mom on the phone, she was the happiest he'd heard her in years, even though she had gone on and on about how Kaelynn has started being difficult. His dad had eventually stolen the phone away from her so he could tell Sam how proud he was of his boy—words Sam hadn't heard since he'd just turned six and had learned how to ride a two-wheeler.

Anyway, Christmas is a favorite time of Sam's, always has been, but unfortunately it also coincides with studying for finals and his friends are currently trying to get him to go to a mutual friend's holiday party instead.

"You've been cooped up studying for your quantum physics final _for days_. You need a break, Sam," says Luke, his hand swiping the textbook from in front of Sam and stuffing it in his own backpack.

"Yeah, that's a great idea, in theory, but I think you underestimate how much I _suck_ at physics." Sam stands up, pushing away from the library table he'd settled in at to study, and reaches out to yank his book out of his friend's clutches. However, Luke grins as he zips up his backpack and stands up and away from Sam, who huffs and rolls his eyes. Luke has almost a whole foot on Sam in terms of height. There's no easy way to get his book back now. " _Fine_ , you have my attention. What's your idea for a break?"

"Well," begins Gwen, who's still sitting at the table, calmly watching the exchange between him and Luke, "MJ is having a party next weekend, and—"

"Wait, MJ _Watson_?"

"Yes, her, and I was thinking that you should come with me as my quote unquote date."

Sam raises an eyebrow at her, "What, you couldn't find someone to _actually_ go with you?"

Gwen rolls her eyes, jabbing Sam in the side with her pen. " _No_ , I actually want to go and have a good time instead of having some guy I barely know constantly glancing around for mistletoe so he can find an excuse to kiss me."

"The point is, dipshit, that you need to step away from all this." Luke picks up Sam's notebook and drops it back on the table for emphasis, earning him some glares from other students nearby. "You're not gonna actually retain any of this if you're so stressed out you can barely function."

"Guys, it's sweet and all, but I really do need to focus on this final, I've only just started on terms from the third week of classes, and—"

Gwen puts her hand over Sam's mouth and forces him to meet her eyes. "Sam, honey, you're coming to this party, and afterwards I will personally ensure that you pass the final."

He smiles as he sits back, propping his legs up on the table. "Well, if you're sure."

Luke snorts, but he pulls Sam's textbook out of his backpack and slides it across the table. "Just make sure your scrawny ass is at the party, Alexander."

"Hey, we can't all be here on football scholarships like you."

"Football or not, the campus gym is open to anyone with a school ID. I'll catch you guys later; I told Danny I'd meet him at 3J's." Luke ruffles Sam's hair and salutes Gwen before walking away, and Sam can't help but feel grateful that though annoying, his friends give a damn about his well-being _and_ his grades.

\-----

When he tells his mom about the party, she tells him he better go, or she'll make him go.

"Mom, how are you going to do that?"

"Baby, just because I'm all the way over here, doesn't mean I can't pull strings over there."

Suddenly, Sam regrets that he gave his mom Gwen's number two semesters ago.

\-----

He has to give it to Mary-Jane; her party is pretty great. It's annoying that Gwen keeps ditching him to talk to other people, even being dragged away by Mary-Jane herself to be introduced to some guys, but Sam finds himself hanging out near Luke and Danny, participating in his roommates' conversations. He is glad to have this break from studying—his head doesn't feel like it's imploding anymore—but at the same time he wishes he could be taking this break in front of a tv back in his dorm room.

It is soothing though, in its own way, to just stand next to the food table and let the party happen around him. The living room turned dance floor is thriving with a good mixture of those who can dance and those who should stop while they're ahead, while the music beats out steadily, almost making Sam want to move himself. However, he remains where he is, drinking from the cup Gwen had handed him—he's pretty sure that's vodka hiding underneath all that juice—and passively listening to the conversation Danny and Luke are having behind him with some other people.

"I'm just saying, it's a little weird that people allow a plant to dictate whether they kiss someone." Luke shrugs, downing a good portion of his beer.

Danny nods, adding, "Perhaps, but it's simply a tradition that one can choose to follow. There's no harm in that."

Sam snorts, inadvertently bringing their attention to him. He sighs and says, "It's just mistletoe. As long as it doesn't hurt anyone, what does it even matter?"

"You're just saying that because no one has ever forced you to kiss them after accidentally standing under it at a party." Luke looks a bit cagey (hah!), and Sam raises an eyebrow at him as he faces the group now.

"You had to kiss a dude, didn't you?" Luke doesn't meet his eyes, and when Sam looks to Danny for confirmation, he's also refusing to meet Sam's eyes. "Oh my _god_ that's _priceless_! You two had to kiss each other!"

They both shift nervously, and Sam's almost too busy laughing at them to even notice the guy walking past them, casually listening in as he moves around the room. He goads them until he gets the full story, which involved last year's Christmas party at Mary-Jane's, gratuitous amounts of alcohol, and a well-placed (and hidden) branch of mistletoe. By the time he allows them to change the conversation, he realizes the guy who'd walked past them is back, presumably where he started, at the other end of the food table. He's glancing around the room, like he's surveying it for a reason to be here, and Sam can't really fault him for it.

Sam tunes back into Luke and Danny's conversation—they've deviated to the topic of Breaking Bad versus The Walking Dead—but he's taking the chance to observe the room himself. He knows a handful of people there, mostly vague acquaintances from various classes and people he's just used to seeing around campus a lot. Gwen has been busy talking with _Flash Thompson_ of all people for some unknown reason, which Sam's a tiny bit annoyed by since she is one of the people who practically dragged him away from his studying, but he also is big enough to admit that he had needed the break. He takes a drink of his juice-vodka-something, and glances back over at the guy at the other end of the table, more than a little shocked to find him staring back at him. The guy immediately diverts his eyes when he's caught, and Sam smiles into his cup, not looking away from a second.

Mostly Sam's staring because this guy looks familiar somehow, even though he's certain that he has no idea what his name is. Plus it's not like Sam has anything more interesting going on at the moment besides the slowly deteriorating conversation happening between his roommates—it's devolved into arguing about comics and how they get adapted into live-action—and the guy isn't hard on the eyes either. It's definitely all worth it for the moment when their eyes meet again, and the guy is embarrassed to find Sam's still looking and therefore catches him trying to sneak a look himself. Their eyes lock, and Sam can't tell much from them besides that they're blue—he gets a fleeting image of an O spectral classified star in his mind before he throws it away—and that maybe this guy is interested. He's certainly _staring_ like maybe he could be down for something, so Sam shoots him a little grin and hopes that he sees the invitation for a casual conversation. The guy takes a step, like he's fully intending on heading over, but then out of nowhere, Gwen inserts herself between them.

Her sudden presence shocks Sam out of what had been going on and he’s completely uncertain where that trance came from. Instead, he focuses back on listening to his friends' talking. He doesn't take his eyes off the random point on the wall opposite him that he's decided to fixate on, but his peripherals do happen to catch that the guy glances around Gwen at him for a moment.

Sam stays at the party for another fifteen minutes. As he leaves, he notices that Gwen has her arm linked with the guy's, and even though it just makes him frown, he also reasons to himself that fair is fair. It's not like he'd even staked a claim on the guy, and for all Sam even knows, the guy's completely straight anyway.

None of this stops Sam from shutting himself up in his room that night and pulling out his physics book because he's self-aware enough to know he's not in the mood to sleep.

\-----

He’s proud of himself when he refrains from staying bitter at Gwen even when she’s helping him study for finals. Neither of them mentions the guy from the party, even though it’s the only thing Sam is thinking about and Gwen’s texting _someone_ an awful lot. After she’s paused in explaining a theorem for the third time to read a text, Sam sighs, setting his pen down and crosses his arms. When she looks back up and sees his expression, she glances around for a clue before asking, “You okay there, Sam?”

“I’m fine, but you seem to be more involved in texting than helping me right now.”

Gwen has the courtesy to wince. “Sorry; guy I met at MJ’s party. “

“Mmhmm.” Sam controls his breathing because he needs Gwen’s help and friendship more than he needs to be upset about a guy who was only _maybe_ interested before she got in the way. He’s bigger than that, even if the guy did have nice eyes. “You think we can study a bit more than we socialize today?”

She snorts, but fires off a text to the guy before putting her phone on silent and hiding it in her bag. “You and physics have my complete attention, Sam.”

\------

Sam makes three As, two Bs, and a high C on his finals. Kaelynn spends a good portion of Christmas calling him ‘space dork’ and Sam retaliates by persisting in calling her ‘kid’ even though she’s sixteen and ‘not a kid.’ His mom just smiles as she fixes meals, and his dad laughs from where he stands in the kitchen, helping her.

It’s a good Christmas even if hardly anyone from school texts him—it’s the holidays, people are busy, he gets it—and he has to leave Carefree a couple days before New Year’s Eve, meaning he has to be back at school about a week earlier than he wants.

‘ _At least you get to come to the New Year’s Eve party!!_ ’ is the response Sam gets when he tells Gwen he’ll be back in NYC by the thirtieth.

‘ _Yay_ ,’ is all he sends back before he boards the plane. He’s not looking forward to seeing her and oh-three star eyes—yes okay he looked up the exact shade on the star classification chart, but he was _studying_ —being all buddy-buddy, but he’ll survive. Maybe it’ll turn out he wouldn’t have wanted to date the guy anyway; maybe he’s perfect for Gwen and not Sam and they all become friends and live happily ever after.

He snorts to himself as he pulls out his iPod for the flight. Yeah, _maybe_.

\------

When Sam finally arrives at the party, it’s gotten pretty crowded and it takes a few minutes before he finds someone he even knows well enough that he wants to strike up a conversation.

“Hey there, Ava!” greets Sam as he walks up to where his friend stands. She looks up at him, giving him a small smile as she recognizes him.

“Sam! How was Arizona?”

He shrugs as he glances around briefly—both trying to find Gwen and also find oh-three star—and then replies, “It was nice to be back home again, but in a way it’s nice to be back here too. There’s at least more things to do here than there is back in Carefree.”

Ava snorts, raising her cup as she takes a drink, “If there’s one thing New York City doesn’t lack, it’s shit to do.”

“So how was your break?”

“Pretty typical, really. My brothers somehow managed to not burn Christmas dinner before our sister arrived with her family, and I was able to get some studying in while my niece and nephew played with their new toys.” Sam struggles to not roll his eyes at her because of course Ava, math major who’s well on her way to graduating summa cum laude, would study between semesters. He’s about to poke fun at her when she adds, “You’ve got an admirer.”

“What?”

She points subtly over towards the opposite side of the room, “The guy standing next to Gwen, he keeps staring at you, but don’t look now, he’s—”

Sam turns his head and locks eyes with oh-three star eyes himself, who seems to blush and divert his gaze almost immediately. Gwen is grinning at the guy, who, Sam can tell from where he stands, is nervous or _something_ , and it takes a soft nudge from Ava to remind him that he should move. As he walks towards them, he wonders if maybe he should come up with some kind of conversation starters, but after a brief glance at Gwen, he figures with that grin, she’ll have his back.

“Hey Sam, how was your Christmas?” asks Gwen coolly when Sam gets close enough to hear them. Oh-three star eyes continues to stand next to her, sort of gaping at Sam, which is both embarrassing and adorable.

“It was okay; Kaelynn almost burned my return ticket though. Mom says I should skype with her more.” Sam faces both of them, hoping to include oh-three star eyes into the conversation as well. “So how’d yours go?”

“Oh, you know how my brothers can get; they hogged the tv playing video games the whole time.” Gwen laughs and Sam follows suit. The guy can’t seem to stop watching Sam’s every move, and he’s flattered but also confused by his behavior when he’d seemed so much more at ease during the last party.

Smiling at him, Sam introduces himself, “Hey, sorry, we’ve never met—I’m Sam Alexander. I’ve had a couple classes with Gwen.”

“Peter Parker. Boyfriend.” Oh-three star eyes—Peter, his mind corrects—stumbles to correct himself. “I mean friend who is a boy. Gwen’s friend.”

Raising an eyebrow and smirking slightly, Sam says, “Got it,” before he addresses Gwen again, whose grin is as big as ever. “Anyway, I just wanted to say hi since we haven’t gotten a chance to speak outside of Facebook since before break.”

“We really should get coffee sometime and catch up.” Gwen slips one of her arms around Peter’s, looking incredibly smug. “Maybe I’ll drag Peter with me so you two can properly meet.”

Sam laughs, almost certain he knows what game Gwen is playing at now, and says goodbye to her and Peter before he walks back over to Ava, who he’s sure watched the entire exchange.

“Who was that hot mess of awkward with Gwen?” she asks once he’s standing next to her again.

“Peter Parker, apparently. He’s her friend who is a boy.” Ava raises her eyebrows at Sam, and he just shakes his head. “His words, not mine. I thought he was going to combust from nervous energy. You would’ve thought I was a big name celebrity with the way he was acting.”

Ava snorts, her own eyes trailing back over to where Gwen is patting Peter’s head as he leans on her. “So not just admiration, but a full blown crush then.”

He nearly misses his mouth while trying to take a drink, choking on what he manages to get in his mouth. “You think so?”

“If that boy made such a fool of himself in front of you that he and Gwen are now leaving,” Ava pauses to gesture to the retreating backs of Gwen and Peter, and Sam’s a little shocked when Gwen winks at him over her shoulder, “Then I think it’s safe to say he’s crushing on you something fierce. Whether he’s aware of it or not—now _that’s_ debatable.”

“But he doesn’t even know me,” mumbles Sam to himself, hoping that Ava doesn’t hear him over the din of the party going on around them.

“Sure didn’t stop you from crushing on him,” she murmurs back, ruffling Sam’s hair before she walks off to talk to someone else. Sam huffs, but can’t find fault with her statement either.

\------

Sam goes home shortly after midnight, still wiping his cheeks from where Luke and Danny had kissed him, and shouting at them that he’d see them back at the dorm. The whole walk back to his room, Sam thinks about how Peter—and man is it nice to have an actual name for the face—reacted to him, and he smiles because this could perhaps be the best start to a new year he’s ever had.

\------

It’s Monday afternoon when Sam sees Gwen again. He’s in the library, trying to get a headstart on ideas for his senior seminar project, and Gwen sidles up to him while he’s standing in the stacks like they’d arranged to meet there.

“Is there a reason why you didn’t tell me you thought Peter was cute, or were you just being an idiot like usual?”

He jumps a little, mostly because he hadn’t realized she was there, and gapes at her for a second as his brain catches up with the conversation. Cheeks possibly a little flushed, he puts the book on bok globules back and replies, “I thought you were going for it, so I politely backed off.”

“So you were being an idiot, got it.”

“Hey!”

Gwen rolls her eyes, taking the other books he’s holding and setting them on the shelf so that Sam will face her. “Believe me when I say that Peter and I have never been anything more than friends.” She sighs and looks up to the florescent lighted ceiling. “Why does everyone think Peter and I are dating?”

“The constant texting and grinning at each other doesn’t exactly help your ‘just friends’ case.”

“Ugh, society,” she mumbles, rolling her eyes. “Whatever, the point is, we’re _not_ dating, but you and Peter _should be_.”

“Gwen—”

“No, I’m right about this—as usual, I might add—and I’m here to help you two figure it out.” Sam opens his mouth to try and object again, but Gwen slaps his face gently, “Hush. Now, Peter has apparently decided to take an elective this semester.”

“Okay?”

“Do you want to guess what he chose?”

Sam shrugs, “That Fantasy Lit class?”

She slaps his face again, but with a little more force. “No. He’s taking Intro to Astronomy.” Gwen smirks as realization spreads across Sam’s face. “There ya go.”

“He’s going to be in my class tomorrow.”

“Indeed he is, and you’re going to save a seat for him. Then you’ll get to spend the whole period appreciating how adorable he looks when flustered.”

Eyebrows furrowing, Sam asks, “Wait, does he not know?” Gwen shakes her head slowly, smirk still in place. “Oh you’re evil.”

“I know, but he really is adorable when he’s flustered—case in point, MJ’s last party.” Sam doesn’t even try to counter that because it’s honestly true. “Anyway, I have to go meet him for dinner, but I felt like I should give you the head’s up in person.”

“Thanks, Gwen,” he says, smiling as he picks back up the books she’d taken from him.

“You’re welcome, Sam,” she points at him as she walks away, “Don’t screw this up.”

He laughs softly, resuming his search for a few minutes before he finds he’s too distracted by the thought of seeing Peter in class tomorrow to continue.

\------

Danny, who is also in Intro to Astronomy and therefore abusing the fact that Sam is his roommate, friend, and the Student Instructor, thankfully has no objections to getting to class about fifteen minutes early. He doesn’t even say anything when Sam puts his bag on the desk to his right, merely quirks up an eyebrow before starting a conversation about senior seminar.

Sam almost completely forgets that he’s waiting for something until Danny grins, nodding at the door as he says, “Open doors often lead to new beginnings.”

His mouth opens and he’s about to ask him to speak English instead of riddles, but then he catches sight of Peter standing in the classroom doorway, staring at him and Danny. “Peter!” Sam calls out, waving him over, “Come sit back here!”

The surprise and mild embarrassment is plain on Peter’s face, and Sam ignores the faint, muffled laughter coming from Danny. When Peter sits down after Sam moves his bag, he allows Peter a moment before adding, “Gwen mentioned that you’d be in this class, so I’ve been saving that seat for you.”

Peter inhales slowly, and Sam can’t help smiling as he watches Peter focus his thoughts—probably about murdering Gwen. “Thanks,” he says, pulling out a pen from his own bag, “that’s nice of you. I guess she forgot to tell me that I’d know anyone in this class when I told her I was taking it.”

He nods, knowing that it wasn’t true, but refusing to throw Gwen under the bus. “She probably got distracted with her own first days of classes. I just happened to run into her at the library yesterday.” Technically she ran into him, he adds mentally, but Peter doesn’t need to know that.

“Yeah, probably,” mumbles Peter, and Sam decides it might be good to let Peter collect his thoughts, and turns back to Danny, who unashamedly is texting Luke about them.

“Luke says ‘get it, space boy’ by the way.”

“I hate you both.” Danny shakes his head and goes back to texting Luke, so Sam returns to Peter, who’s still looking a little lost. “So, how’ve you been since MJ’s party?”

“I’ve been good,” he replies, a little startled it seems from being addressed again, “Mostly just hanging out with Gwen while my best friend temporarily forgets about me due to his girlfriend. You?”

“Besides the usual prepping for the semester crap, I’ve really just been watching tv with my roommates, so good.”

He waits for Peter’s response, but before he can, Professor Rocque enters and starts class. Sam glances at Peter every so often, wondering what he’d been about to say. There’s no chance to find out either because as soon as class gets dismissed, Peter’s out the door with a rushed goodbye and his phone to his ear. Watching his retreating back, Sam sighs.

“Shame,” says Danny as he stands up, “I was hoping he’d stick around and fumble for speech some more.”

“Shut up, Danny.”

Danny shrugs, ignoring Sam entirely, which is nothing new. “I’ll see you later, Sam. Have fun chasing after your star.”

As Danny walks away, Sam really regrets getting drunk with him and Luke the other night because while he’d suspected the foggy memory of rambling about Peter’s eyes and oh-three stars was real, there is no denying it happened now.

\------

“Are you sure he won’t mind?” asks Sam as he sits across from Gwen at the coffee shop she’s dragged him to after Friday’s classes are over.

Gwen snorts into her coffee. “Oh, he’s gonna mind, but he’ll also get over it after you buy him coffee.”

Sam narrows his eyes at her. “Buy him coffee? Gwen Stacy, is this a _date_?”

“Oh _please_ , this is a prelude to a date because believe me, I don’t want to be present for the first one.”

“Doesn’t mean you’re not playing matchmaker.”

“My dear Samuel,” says Gwen over her coffee cup, “I never said I was playing anything else.”

In his mind, Sam starts thinking up ways that he can get her back—some of them include Peter, assuming everything goes well. She’s laughing at his joke about Higgs-Boson when Peter walks into the coffee shop.

“Peter!” Gwen jumps up and meets him at the door, whispering fervently with him for a moment. Sam tries not to watch them, but it’s hard when the movement of Gwen dragging Peter over catches his eye.

“Everything okay?” he asks, glancing between the two of them. Gwen’s already sitting down again, coffee cup in her hands, while Peter stands awkwardly near them.

“Fine. Everything’s fine,” Peter replies hurriedly, a small smile aimed at Sam, “I’m just going to get some coffee and then I’ll be right back.”

Sam doesn’t even have t look at Gwen to know he’s getting a pointed look, so he abruptly stands up. “Let me get that for you!” He ignores the way he feels his cheeks grow warm and the smug expression he knows is on Gwen’s face. “I feel bad since I’m starting to think you didn’t know I was going to be here.”

Peter gapes at him, and Sam can’t help but think for the twentieth time how cute he is when flustered. “Well, no I didn’t, but it’s fine, really. I can get my own coffee. It’s not a big deal, I promise.”

“Peter,” he begins, stepping closer, one hand reaching for his wallet while his eyes lock with Peter’s, and Sam never thought in a million years that he’d be this bold. His free hand touches Peter’s wrist lightly, a little afraid that at any second it could be brushed away, and adds, “I know it’s not a big deal, but I _want_ to anyway.”

With a brief glance at Gwen, who Sam’s sure is pretending to ignore them, Peter stutters, “O-Okay then.”

Smiling wide, Sam resists the urge to squeeze Peter’s wrist, and lets go instead. “Awesome. So what do you want then?”

There’s a moment of silence, and Sam nearly thinks Peter is going to change his mind again. Instead he answers, “Uh, a peppermint mocha.”

“Got it; be right back.” Sam walks towards the register and orders the drink without another word to Peter, his heart beating incredibly fast. The barista glances at Peter for a brief moment, and then winks at him before turning away to do her job. Sam wants to bang his head against the counter because even though everything is going fine so far, it’s also all Gwen’s planning that’s working. Suddenly Sam is terrified that the minute he and Peter are on their own, it will all dissolve into unintelligible awkward rambling.

Behind him, he can sort of hear them whispering again, and he’s about to try and listen harder—it’s a public coffee shop, and they’re all friends, it’s _fine!_ —when the barista hands him Peter’s drink.

“Good luck,” she murmurs to him, winking again, and Sam knows for a fact he’s blushing this time.

Gwen and Peter aren’t talking with Sam returns, getting a soft, “Thanks,” from Peter when he hands over the mocha.

“You’re welcome,” he responds as he sits back down, picking his own coffee up again. He focuses on Peter, trying to pretend Gwen isn’t there for a bit, and asks, “So Gwen tells me that you’re a chemical engineering major?”

\------

They don’t do more than talk and hold hands that first night. It doesn’t matter to Sam though because he’s pretty sure that he could ride the adrenaline high from confessing his interest in Peter for about a month straight. It at least carries him straight to the next morning when his mom calls him, and he blurts the whole story out to her after she tells him about Kaelynn’s latest hobby—pottery.

“Gwen mentioned there was a guy, but I had no idea so soon!” Sam really is going to tag-team with Peter against her for gossiping about him to his own mother. “When do you see him again?”

“Tonight, actually. We’re going ice skating.”

“I’m so happy for you, baby! I’ll tell your father the moment he gets home; I know he’ll be happy for you too.”

“Thanks, Mom,” he says, grinning to himself as he fiddles with the napkin that Peter hastily wrote his number down on when Gwen went to the bathroom. “I think you guys will like him. I don’t know when you’ll meet or if you will or anything, but I’m hopeful.”

“He sounds lovely, baby.” A crash sounds on her end of the phone, followed by frustrated yelling and more shattering noises. “I have to go, Sam. It sounds like your sister is still having trouble with the wheel.”

“Okay, love you. Pass it on to Dad and Kaelynn.”

“Will do, baby. I love you and stay safe. Bye!”

“Bye!”

\------

Hours later when Sam’s getting ready for his first Actual Date with Peter, he gets texts from both his parents and Kaelynn wishing him good luck. Rolling his eyes, but feeling elated nonetheless, Sam smiles as he buttons up his coat and leaves his dorm for the Rockefeller Center.

\------

The double date with Mary-Jane and Harry is both hilarious and a success. Harry smiles at them, like he always sort of suspected, while Mary-Jane asks for every single detail. In turn, Sam and Peter ask her for help regarding getting revenge on Gwen. Mary-Jane simply smirks.

“I know of a girl,” she says, and Sam raises an eyebrow while Peter chokes on his drink.

“A girl?” he asks, while Peter coughs out, “Wait, _that_ girl?!”

“Yes, and yes,” replies Mary-Jane, and Harry must recognize that gleam in her eyes far better than Sam or Peter because he groans loudly—though despite that there’s still a fond smile on his lips.

“The next few weeks are going to be full of scheming and plans, aren’t they?”

Mary-Jane flutters her eyelashes at him. “But of course!”

They all laugh, and Peter holds Sam’s hand under the table. “So about this girl?” prompts Sam, squeezing Peter’s hand back.

“It all started in high school,” begins Mary-Jane, Harry’s arm on the back of her chair as she explains the history between Gwen and the elusive former mathlete girl. No one’s named the mystery girl yet, but Sam grins despite himself because he’s pretty sure he knows exactly who they’re talking about. Especially since it was a certain math major who had pointed Gwen and Peter out to him at MJ’s last party in the first place.

\------

Sam will probably always regard Christmas as his favorite holiday, but he also thinks that maybe he might love it a little bit more now than he did before.

**Author's Note:**

> P.S. yes, that is Gwen/Ava I'm hinting at. no, I don't know where it came from. yes, I might write something about them in the future who knows, I make zero promises so I can't be held accountable.
> 
> love you all byeeeeeeee


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